What the election result means for LGBTQ+: The agony after the election

It is still February. Nevertheless, Germany is already caught between the Merz revolution and the MAGA madness: Make Alemannia Germanisch Again may not have been an official campaign slogan, but in the race for the Chancellor's office, the longing for the past undeniably played the main role. Elections were held on Sunday. The projections are over, the lows of the exploratory talks are about to begin. A blue sky stretches across the country and one sees black.

In the eyes of many people within the LGBTQ community, the rainbow is fading. The fact that the CDU/CSU and the Alternative for Germany came out on top, even if the two do not actually form a coalition with each other, raises fears that hard-won rights could soon be overturned. The Trump-Musk team is successfully demonstrating how to exclude non-heterosexuals with pomp and populism.

Friedrich Merz, who wants to become chancellor of 83 million citizens, declares that he will "again make politics for the majority of the population who think straight and have all their marbles." We know what, or rather who, the CDU chairman means by the others.

The AfD even insists on abolishing both marriage for all and the office of the Federal Government's Queer Commissioner . At first glance, this seems like a strange wish list for a party whose leader is homosexual. Perhaps Alice Weidel thinks the Dyke* March is an event that takes place at low tide on the Wadden Sea.

But if you say A for AfD, you also have to say B for BSW. Because when demagogues embrace democracy, whether from the right or the left, it is a stranglehold. See Sahra Wagenknecht, who missed the five percent hurdle to enter the Bundestag on Sunday. "No to this self-determination law! Gender is not a lifestyle issue,"the BSW founder wrote on Instagram in 2024. I replied: "A yes to the BSW is a yes to the German Sharia electoral association. Fundamentalism is not a lifestyle issue, but a threat to life."

The fact is, being queer is something natural. It is one of the many manifestations of the human need to love and live independently. We, the people directly affected, do not want special privileges, but rights.

Those who rail against sexual self-determination with venom and bile reveal a lot, even and especially when they come up with superficial justifications. They want to protect women and children. There is no doubt that women and children must be protected: for example, trans* women and non-binary children from hate and incitement.

But the disappointment of many in the LGBTQ community is not only directed at conservatives and right-wing extremists. Those political parties that, at least in their election manifestos, place queer life more clearly at the center of society also have some catching up to do. It is great that the Greens and the resurgent Left are calling for comprehensive health care for queer people .

But this does not answer the question of what these parties are specifically doing to combat the growing hate crimes against queers of all stripes. According to police reports, most anti-queer attacks in Berlin in 2024 took place in the districts of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Mitte and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, at least those that were reported. So anti-queer sentiment is not something that can be attributed to the more conservative to right-wing extremist outskirts.

These acts, which have also included anti-Semitic ones since October 7, are happening right in our midst in what is supposedly a tolerant, multicultural environment. I don't hear any outcry about this from the "progressive" parties. Is it not happening because people are afraid of being branded as xenophobic or Islamophobic?

In my experience, the impression that protecting perpetrators often takes precedence over protecting victims is widespread in the queer community. However, those who do not adequately consider the security needs of victims, which include Muslim queers, should not be surprised if they lose the trust of the LGBTQ community.